Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals/Chapter of the Fire
The chapter picks up directly after the Chapter of the Wind, with Prettz attempting to take Linaly to the Blue Mage of Tycoon Castle after leaving the Temple of the Wind. Upon leaving the valley of the temple, the two are however apprehended by Valkus and the Iron Wings, accusing them of having stolen the Wind Crystal. While Linaly and Prettz try to defend themselves, stating that they have the intent to protect the crystal, it is revealed the Rouge and her pirate crew are listening in on the conversation. Rouge and her crew then decide to steal the crystal, while Prettz and Linaly attempt to escape upon which Valkus opens fire on the pair. After getting scratched by a bullet, Prettz decides to fight back and lets Linaly drive him back to Valkus. The fierce attack with his Kiku-ichimonji is however stopped by Valkus with his bare hands. It is at this point that Rouge and her pirates attack with what seems to be sleeping gas, interrupting the battle and kidnapping Linaly, Prettz and Valkus. Rouge, rejoicing over the fact that she not only got the kids (and the Wind Crystal, as she believes) but also the chief of the Iron Wings, orders her crew to take them all to Rouge Island. On Rouge Island, located in the Mazalea Islands, Rouge and her crew intend to learn where the Wind Crystal is hidden and begin to torture Prettz, who stubbornly refuses to tell them. Angered by this, Rouge quickly employs two pole-like machines with human-shaped heads to tickle Prettz until he would spill the beans. This attempt however remains unsuccessful as Prettz refuses to talk; Valkus however appears to fall in love with Rouge at this time. Rouge then goes on to threaten to hurt Linaly and strangles her with her whip, even going so far as to threaten to break Linaly's neck at which point Prettz gets enraged and kicks Rouge aside. He quickly gets knocked out afterwards, leaving Rouge surprised at the boy's bravery. The scene then shifts to the Iron Wings, where the second-in-command asks his crew if they have found any clues on the Wind Crystal's location, to which they reply that the magic board does not show any reactions. The second-in-command then states that they must retrieve the Wind Crystal at all costs, whether Valkus was still alive or not, as they could otherwise not return to Tycoon. They are unaware that they are being tailed by the Deathgyunos' airship during their search. Back on Rouge Island, the group has been thrown into a prison cell out of which Prettz attempts to escape, albeit with little success. Meanwhile, Valkus ponders about Rouge's beauty and laments the disaster of whether he can be allowed to love and outlawed pirate, being the royal knight he is. Linaly then appears to be sick just before the Wind Crystal leaves her body through her chest and summons the ghost of Mid Previa before the eyes of the surprised trio. The reappearance of the Crystal meanwhile causes the Iron Wings to notice its presence and track it down to Rouge Island. Mid then introduces himself, leading to much surprise on Linaly's part as she realizes that he is part of the legendary courageous ones who helped the Light Warriors defeat ExDeath. Prettz however does not feel awe at this and just remarks that Mid is like a dirty old man for having hidden himself away in Linaly's body, after which Mid orders the Crystal to retake its place in the young girls body. Prettz tries to shield Linaly from the Crystal but is unsuccessful as the Crystal passes cleanly through him, retaking his spot in Linaly. It is then shown that the Crystals disappearance also caused the reading on the magic board aboard the Iron Wing to vanish again. Meanwhile, the Deathgyunos are tailing them underwater, as the two robotic figures are shown once more, stating the distance to their target. On Rouge Island, Prettz tries to pick a fight with Mid but ultimately only hurts himself due to the ghost's intangibility. Mid then goes on to apologize to Linaly for making her hide the Crystal in her body but points out the necessity of this, as they can not fool the enemy, Deathgyunos, otherwise. He also then explains that the Deathgyunos require the power of the four Crystals for their evil schemes, and that the world would end once they'd get their hands on the fourth one. However, when questioned who Deathgyunos actually is, Mid denies an answer, leading to him being picked on by Prettz, who gets quite angry at the ghost when he labels him the follower of Linaly, the honorable descendant of Bartz. His attempt to attack Mid is however cut short by Linaly who tells him to stop, through which she actually confirms Mid's words about Prettz. Mid then goes on to label Linaly, Prettz and Valkus the three new valiant and courageous ones chosen by the Crystal to protect it, and employs them to guard it, after which Prettz angrily states that he doesn't want to take orders from a ghost and would protect it anyway. Following Linaly's vow to protect the Crystal, Mid then begins to think that the girl has fallen in love with him, and falls for her himself. This obviously angers the jealous Prettz who then goes on to attack Mid, forgetting about his intangible nature as a ghost. When Mid shortly disappears and then reappears from Prettz stomach, lecturing him about how jealousy was an ugly thing, Prettz decides to attack him full force—which leads to him hitting himself full force in the crotch. Valkus remarks about the boy never learning, when Rouge makes her return to visit her prisoners, isolating Linaly in the process. However, her attempts to talk Linaly into giving her the Crystal fail due to Linaly being unable to actually force the Crystal out. Rouge then states that it is a shame, as she is not fond of playing with a young girl's body, but she orders her crew to take Linaly with them nonetheless. Prettz then attempts once more to escape the cell, but is unable to bend the iron bars. Valkus however, after having been snapped out of his daydreams about Rouge, manages to open big enough a hole for Prettz to slip through, leading to him going ahead and leave the cell, while the bigger Valkus tries hard to open a hole big enough for himself to fit through. Prettz then makes his way to Rouge's room, knocking out two guards upon slamming open the door and apprehends Rouge who had been giving Linaly a laxative—after all, she did not want to do anything too drastic to her. Upon being himself apprehended by Rouge's guards, Prettz takes up a sword and goes on a little rampage before grabbing Linaly and escaping with her. Mid then leads the pair through the cavernous island to a warehouse filled with explosives. It is here that the group finds Prettz' motorcycle again as well as his Kiku-ichimonji. In the meantime, Valkus has managed to escape as well but gets stopped by a guard. Stating he does not wish to fight fat women, he angers the guard who then attacks him, before Prettz and Linaly arrive with the motorcycle and run the guard over while passing through. During their escape, Mid who has taken a place on Linaly's lap suggests they should steal the pirate's airship to escape from the island, however Prettz does only answer by threatening Mid and telling him to move away from Linaly before attempting to kick him. This instantiate leads to him missing the road and causes the motorcycle to tumble down the cliff, before landing on the tubes for the transporting system of Rouge Island. Dodging the attacks of oncoming guards, the trio soon reaches the pirate's ship nonetheless. However, they are awaited by Rouge and her crew who refuse to hand their ship over quietly. Prettz and Rouge both prepare themselves to face each other in battle before Valkus arrives and intervenes, trying to stop them. While Valkus tries to reason with Rouge that fighting Prettz because he destroyed her treasures would not be a clever thing to do, Deathgyunos soldiers appear and begin to attack both Linaly and her friends as well as the pirates. Valkus and Prettz then both shield Rouge and Linaly respectively from the attacks with their weapons, before Prettz decides to play the bait. Stating that it is him who has the Crystal, he takes off into the caverns, leading the mechanical Deathgyunos soldiers to follow him down to the explosives storage. After being ordered to hand them out the Crystal, Prettz throws some of his own bombs into the explosives, causing the entire storehouse to go up in flames. Soon, the entire island burns, leaving Rouge and her crew with boarding their ship as the only option. Valkus also brings Linaly aboard despite her struggling against it, as she does not want to leave Prettz behind. While escaping, Rouge laments the loss of her island, stating how her dream has died with it. Valkus then tries to cheer her up saying she should not give up on her dream. The Iron Wing makes its appearance shortly afterwards, where the second-in-command states that Valkus has apparently captured all the pirates on his own. Meanwhile, Linaly is staring sadly at the sea, believing to have lost Prettz. However, Mid appears and points to a crate floating in the water, stating that the follower Prettz is right there. Overjoyed, Linaly jumps into the water and tries to swim over to Prettz, before Kisana appears, and resurfaces right below her in order to carry her over to Prettz. The scene then cuts over to the leader of the Deathgyunos who is angry at his soldiers for having failed him. However, their assurance to bring him the girl as soon as possible seems to calm him down. The chapter then ends with the Deathgyunos ship taking off in the direction of the black moon. Category:Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals